Women in sex-trafficking traded like produce' to as many as 25 men a day

NAPLES, Fla. — She was known as Marisol, the boss’ girlfriend, a recruiter and minder of the women.

When federal agents dismantled a sex trafficking ring stretching from Florida to North Carolina last week, her name appeared throughout the court documents indicting her and 12 others.

Federal investigators allege in an indictment unsealed in Georgia that Marisol and others shuttled the women victims between Southeastern cities and states for prostitution.

Along with her boyfriend, Joaquin Mendez-Hernandez, and another man, the trio ran the prostitution ring, U.S. attorneys will argue before a federal judge in Georgia.

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Marisol, whose real name is Luisa Capilla-Lancho, also was a victim of the ring.

Investigators documented how her boyfriend and other alleged members of the business drove her from Savannah, Ga., to meet clients in the area and neighboring states. Antonio Mendez-Lopez, 45, a Golden Gate, Fla., man also indicted, had her working in Collier County, Fla., the government alleges in an affidavit.

The confluence of victim and co-conspirator is a scenario familiar to human-trafficking experts.

It happens “all of the time,” said Giselle Rodriguez, state outreach coordinator for the Tampa-based Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking. “The guys are always going to find that go-to girl. She’s going to become the most trusted.”

They often start out as victims, she explained, before “moving up” in the ranks. Getting close to the ringleader can be a way to avoid even the worst abuse. A hit with an open hand instead of a fist. A bed to sleep in. Fewer threats.

And there are threats -- being sent back to their home country is a common one, especially with undocumented victims as seen in the new case.

The johns, Rodriguez said, “try to find different ways to control these women. Sometimes, if it’s not physical or sexual, it’s isolation that helps break that person’s spirit down.”

At least 11 victims of the ring, which was taken down by a U.S. Department of Homeland Security-led 2 1/2-year investigation called Operation Dark Night, were passed around every 7 to 10 days between the johns indicted in the case, authorities said.

A different city every week for women, especially ones not originally from the U.S., is disorienting, said Yaro Garcia, a clinical therapist who works with trafficking and abuse victims in Lee County, Fla., through Abuse Counseling and Treatment, or ACT.

It’s also strategic.

“It helps with the confusion, too, of being in a foreign country and not knowing your surroundings,” Garcia said. “You’re never in a place long enough to know where you are, where the store is, where the police are. It creates even more confusion, more vulnerability for the victim.”

The nomadic sex trafficking scheme is common practice now; the crime has gone mobile to avoid detection from police and maximize profits by traveling to areas of high demand.

By Marisol’s account in court documents, she saw more clients than any of the other women -- most, if not all, undocumented -- as a network of johns sold them like produce, sometimes to five clients for one price, known as a mano, or a hand in Spanish.

It’s a term used in some Latin American countries to indicate a quantity of fruit or vegetables in the market. Una mano de platanos.

Prostitution was the crime organization’s business, according to federal investigators.

The women were commodities. Like any business, there are overhead costs. The indictment in this case lists payments for hotel rooms, food, shelter, transportation and condoms.

Sex traffickers are often hyper-vigilant about their prostitutes using protection. The women aren’t valuable if they are sick or pregnant, Garcia explained matter-of-factly.

Clients often will be given a condom and some prostitutes are trained to yell out if he refuses to use it. Her driver, who is generally nearby, then doubles as an enforcer.

“This is a business. They know how to run it. They know how to make it work. And they’re careful,” Garcia said.

As part of the federal investigation, agents arrested 44 potential clients of the ring on immigration offenses. They now face an immigration judge to determine if they will be deported.

As an alleged leader in the sex trafficking ring as well as a victim, Marisol’s fate is uncertain. She may catch a break from federal prosecutors for cooperation because she also was used as a prostitute.

The sex trafficking charges against her, her boyfriend, and other alleged co-conspirators can carry a life sentence, if convicted.

The other victims in Operation Dark Night are receiving assistance, said Carissa Cutrell, spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Tampa.

To understand the trauma of sex trafficking, Garcia encourages people to rethink the terminology: the women are being trafficked, yes, but that word isn’t enough.

The victims in Operation Dark Night were seeing 25, 30, sometimes as many as 40 clients a day for at least a week straight.

They were being sexually assaulted with each one, Garcia said.

“Just to get a perspective, if you think of that in clinical terms, one sexual assault can be a life(-altering) situation, where that person struggles for a long period of time because of that sexual assault,” she explained. “Here we’re talking about repeated sexual assaults, multiple times a day.”